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Monday, April 20, 2009

Spray Basting

I am a very visual learner. There is nothing like seeing what someone is trying to explain. I thought I'd do a step by step pictorial on how I spray baste my quilts. I do not profess to be a photographer, so please just visualize nice photos while looking at my snapshots.

Using a spray to baste your quilts is not for everyone, it is just what works for me. Make sure you do it in a well ventilated area.

When I did this on Thursday from start to finish it took about 40 minutes. Start means pulling my car out of the garage and finish means removing the tape and folding the quilts.I've tried many basting sprays and am completely sold on Sullivan's. It seems a little harder to find these days, but it's worth it to me.So, let's go:

Find yourself a nice open space; large enough to spread out your backing. I use my garage floor. It's impossible in the winter because of the snow that comes in with my car. But things have dried out now. Sweep well!

Lay your backing wrong side up and using masking tape (I was out, so I used scotch-the quilts were small enough that I could get away with it, anything bigger and I would have made sure to use masking tape) start at one end and put about 3 pieces of tape to hold down the backing. Move to the other end; tape it also pulling lightly to smooth. Move to the sides and continue taping around the perimeter of the quilt. The larger the quilt the more tape you may want to use. My backing doesn't look very smooth here, but it isn't that big so I wasn't going to fret too much.

Now, lay your batting on top of your taped backing. If the quilt was large I would have the centers marked so I could line them up easily. See the seam in my batting? I had to piece it! (Humble Quilts)

Now, pull the batting back about 1/2 way. Use your spray baste and spray, according to the directions, the batting and the backing that is showing. Fold the batting back over and smooth from the center out onto your backing, making sure there are no lumps or wrinkles. If there is, just lift and re-press. Make sure it is smooth.

Now, fold the batting over from the other side. You will know about how far to fold it over because it will be a bit sticky where you've already basted. Spray both sides, fold over and smooth.

Now, you will do exactly the same thing with the top. Center it on top of your batting, right side up

Fold back about 1/2 way, spray your batting and quilt top. Fold back over and smooth. Make sure there are no lumps or folds!

Then you will fold back the other side and do the same thing. Fold top back on batting and smooth out so everything lays flat.

Ta-Da! Remove tape and you are ready to quilt! Personally I don't use the spray if I am handquilting as I think it would be difficult.

6 comments:

Thanks so much for making the tutorial. It's so much easier when you "see" it. :-) Do you get much overspray on the garage floor and does it get sticky? I will have to look for some Sullivan's spray. It would be so nice to not have to baste!

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